Is this Nokia's Android smartphone? Reportedly set for 2014 release

An image of a red Nokia smartphone leaked by EvLeaks in November now has a story behind it.

According to The Verge, it is the long-awaited Nokia Android handset. Pocket-lint has been unable to confirm the validity of the rumour, so maybe approach this with caution.

Codenamed "Normandy", the handset will reportedly run a forked version of Android, similar to the software Amazon has on its Kindle Fire line. The software running on the Nokia handset won't look like the typical Android running on most smartphones today, but is said to have support for top Android applications on the market.

The "Normandy" handset is said to be aimed at the low-end market, equivalent to Nokia's line of Asha devices. No specifications for the handset were shared, but from the leaked press photo, we can gather it won't have capacitive touch buttons.

It's not clear if Nokia's Android handset will actually be released, given Microsoft will be acquiring Nokia's handset business in the first quarter of 2014. We can't really see Microsoft, who has gone all-in behind its Windows Phone software, condoning an Android-based device under its ownership.

However, according to The Verge, employees within Nokia have been notified the project is "full steam ahead" and that the handset will be released in 2014.

Industry insider, fans, and the like, have all hoped for an Android handset from Nokia for quite sometime.

A report from The New York Times in September claimed that before the sale to Microsoft, Nokia engineers had developed Lumia phones running Google's Android operating system. Microsoft apparently knew about the Android handsets, though they didn't become a part of discussions when the companies negotiated.